Cryptocurrencies started Tuesday’s U.S. session with a sharp decline amid news of escalating tensions in the Middle East.

- Bitcoin (BTC) reached $64,000 in European hours, but quickly fell to $62,500 after reports of a possible Iranian missile attack on Israel.

- At press time, Bitcoin is down 2% in the past 24 hours to $62,700.

- The CoinDesk 20 Index is also down, with Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) outperforming the average, while Polkadot (DOT), Uniswap (UNI), Polygon (POL), and Hedera (HBAR) are the worst performers.

- Key U.S. equity indexes opened lower, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 1.2% and 2%, respectively.

- Gold rose 1.2% to $2,690 an ounce, while WTI crude rose 3% to $70 a barrel.

- The divergence in gold and Bitcoin prices underscored Bitcoin's high correlation with risk assets like stocks. The correlation between BTC and the S&P 500 hit a one-year high of 0.62.

Bitcoin's decline on Tuesday is reminiscent of similar incidents at the start of the current Middle East conflicts a year ago and in April and July of this year.